Electoral advertising in the first spanish multiparty campaigns: the personalization of politics as a strategic value

Abstract

The primacy of television and the Internet as a new means of communication has meant that advertisements continue to be important during election campaigns. This paper addresses the existing gap in the literature on the study of election advertising in the context of the first multiparty general election of 20D 2015.  Given the inability of the four major parties in Spain to form a government: PP, PSOE, Podemos and Ciudadanos, the elections were repeated on 26J 2016.

The objectives focus on the typology of spots used and the use of negative publicity through a descriptive analysis of a sample of 77 spots collected from official YouTube accounts.  The personalization of the policy and the image that advertising makes of the candidates is of vital importance. Similarly, the methodology is established as a starting point for an analysis of the spots created for subsequent election campaigns in Spain, thus filling the existing academic gap.